


Stay

by littlepai



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Depressed Nico, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Holding Hands, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-11
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-03-11 21:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3334016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlepai/pseuds/littlepai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After drinking a potion made by Lou Ellen, Nico is emotionally compromised. Only a certain healer son of Apollo could help him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> So, as always, when I'm sad I write and this is the result. Writing it cheered me up and I hope it'll cheer you up too if you're in the mood. Let me know if it worked ^_^

Like always, it is all Lou Ellen’s fault.   
“Just try it once, Nico, it won’t hurt you” she says, smiling at him.   
Nico trusts the daughter of Hecate when it comes to fighting: she saved his life during the Camp Half-Blood battle and her tricks are usually good. But this potion seems different: the blue liquid in the vial reminds Nico of the one he, Jason and the others had to drink back at the House of Hades.   
“Lou Ellen, you sure?” he asks her suspiciously. The girl nods. “Please” she asks, I don’t know who to ask and someone has to try it or I’ll never know if it works” she replies.   
Lou Ellen has a point. Of course Lou Ellen asked Nico, he is the Demigod less in danger when it comes to life and death situations, being the son of Hades and all. He opens the vial and sniffs it. It smells like nothing he can identify and the blue of the liquid has lighter shades of azure. Nico sighs and drinks it.  
It is a matter of seconds and Nico’s knees weakens. He falls on the ground, eyes open in the darkness. Everything comes to him all at once: Maria di Angelo explodes thanks to Zeus. Bianca leaves him for good to join the Hunters of Artemis. Percy tells him that his sister is dead. His father fools him and kidnaps Percy. Percy tells him that he no longer trusts him. Nico realizes that Percy and Annabeth are officially a couple. The son of Poseidon disappears and Nico goes looking for him until he shows up at Camp Jupiter. The Tartarus and the endless days in the jar, the suffocating sense of dying, the sleepless nights on the deck of the Argo II. Cupid. His father telling him one of the Demigods of the Argo II is going to die. Bryce’s death. Octavian’s death. Leo’s death. Especially Leo.  
“Nico! Nico, wake up!”   
There is one hand under Nico’s head and somebody is touching his forehead, as to check his temperature. Nico gasps, breathing fresh air and opening his eyes. Will’s face is the first thing he sees. The son of Apollo looks worried and his blue eyes are studying Nico’s face.   
“I… I’m okay. I need to… stand up” says Nico, his voice hoarse.  
“Slow down, Death boy” replies Will, his voice in doctor’s mode. Will gives him a hand and Nico takes it, letting the son of Apollo helping him up. Nico staggers, but Will is ready to catch him, circling his shoulders with one arm. “I’ll take you to the infirmary. Can you walk?”  
Nico blushes but manages to scowl at Will. “Of course I can walk.” He tries to push the son of Apollo away, but he is still weak and he arrives at the infirmary with a little help from Will.  
“Where’s Lou Ellen?” asks Nico as Will makes him sit on one of the beds in the empty infirmary.  
Will smiles a little. “She went straight to me when you passed out, she was scared to death… Now she is with Chiron, I think he is talking to her. How did she managed to convince you to try her crappy spell?”  
“Well, she didn’t tell me what it was about, but I thought that maybe she asked me because I’m a son of Hades…”  
“So?” asks Will, angry. “As if you’re less in danger then the rest of us…”  
“Well, I am less in danger than the rest of you” snaps Nico, regretting it the moment later. Will looks hurt and worried. Nico sighs, wondering. Why do I always ruin everything?  
Suddenly he feels very tired and lays down on the bed. “Sorry” Nico whispers.  
“Um” Will mutters. “Ok, for this time you get away with it. But just because you look like crap”.  
“Jeez, thank you” mumbles Nico. Surprisingly, Will smiles.   
“That’s not what I meant.” The son of Apollo takes a little pause, then licks his lips, as if preparing to speak again. “So, did Lou Ellen told you what that potion would have done to you?”  
“Actually no” replies Nico, curious.   
“It forces you to go through your worst experience. Like the Dementors in Harry Potter, you know?”  
Nico nods. He managed to read all the seven books of Harry Potter even with his dyslexia: they are just too good.   
“So” continues Will, “are you… ok now?”  
Nico studies Will’s face. His blue eyes are full of concerns and the son of Apollo seems almost scared. “I’m fine” shortcuts Nico.   
“No you’re not. Are we really having this conversation again, Nico?” says Will, his voice low.  
“What do you want me to say? That it was even worst then every time I fall asleep and the dead calls? That it was worst then every day without Bianca? You don’t know what I went through Solace”.   
Nico is panting now. Anger flames him and he almost shouted at Will. The other boy stays quiet on the bed, silent. Then Will fixes his eyes on him again. “No, I don’t know what you went through, Nico, because you never told me. Why don’t you do it now?”  
His tone barely hides a dare. Nico usually likes challenges, but this time is different. He is not good with feelings and people, especially with Will Solace. The healer always manages to make him feel like a little kid, nervous, as if he has to hide something. Nico looks at him, feeling again butterflies in his stomach.   
“I… I saw stuff. From the past. Not the Forties. From my past”. Will waits for him to go on, but when Nico keeps quiet he reaches out and takes his hand. Nico is not used to hold someone’s hand. He barely lets Hazel, Reyna and Jason to touch him. Will’s hand is warm and soft, and squeezes his own very lightly. The touch comforts him, and Nico struggles against the instinct to squeeze Will’s hand back. He manages to resist. After what happened with Percy he feels like he can’t allow himself any kind of emotion. With Will Solace it is getting more difficult every day. Whatever, he is a healer, that’s why he is holding my hand anyway. But he can’t find the strength to pull the hand away, so he leaves it wrapped in Will’s fingers. Nico is tired, too tired. He just wishes this conversation to end, so he has to give Will something.  
“I think the worst part was Tartarus. I… I thought I was going to die. Then there was the jar where the giants held me captive… there was no space and no air. No hope. When P… Percy, Jason and the other freed me I didn’t believe I could get away with it alive”.  
Nico stops abruptly. Did I say too much? He wonders. Every time he talks about himself has this fear, as if telling someone your problems means giving away your soul. Nico has already lost too much, doesn’t want to give up his soul too. He pulls away his hand, he needs Will Solace to go away, wants to be alone. He shift position in the bed, so Will can’t see his face.   
“You know” says Will, “when Coach Hedge came back to Camp Half-Blood I spoke to him. He told me about your journey in Europe. He told me you was about to became a ghost”.   
Nico understands that Will tries to keep a calm tone but he can spot the distress in his voice. “Yeah, I bet he told you all about me. Please Will, go away. I don’t want to talk”.   
Then something unexpected happens. Nico can feel Will’s hand on his shoulder. It’s warm and heavy, solid and real. It’s like an anchor, a request to let him stay. Nico glance briefly at Will over his shoulder, long enough to notice his hurt expression, a Don’t make me go away said with eyes.   
Nico can feel tears in his eyes and tries to blink them away, but it doesn’t work. One of his tears rolls on his cheek and Will fingers are there to wipe it. Nico expects Will to go away now, maybe even to tease him for crying, but the boy is still there, very close, and he’s teary eyed too. The son of Apollo is blushing under his tan and is leaning closer to him.   
When Will hugs him, Nico is bewildered. He’s afraid, it’s too much, too much intimate, too much close, too much Will’s arms wrapped around him, Will’s fingers brushing his forearm. It’s also just too good, and he realizes that there’s no other place in the world he would likely be. He doesn’t hug Will back, but lingers in his arms, breathing his scent, eyes closed, tears still on his cheek and on Will’s shoulder.  
Suddenly he thinks about his sleepless nights on the Argo II, of all the times Hazel tried to talk to him and he didn’t say anything, too lost in his feelings for Percy, too worried about him and Annabeth in Tartarus and too wrapped in his own loneliness. Back there he would have done everything just to have Percy holding him like this.   
Now it’s just unbelievable that there is someone who tolerate Nico enough to have him so close, even to hug him. Nico already received hugs – from Bianca and Hazel of course, even from Reyna and Jason – but being hugged by Will it’s different. In none of the other hugs was the other person brushing his skin, caressing his hair. Nico is used to battle, to fight, to be on his own, to be strong. He is not used to being sad, confused and tired with other people. In Will’s arms everything seems possible and Nico finally allows himself, for once, to not be strong, not caring, for once, what Will is going to think. He grips the son of Apollo by the shoulders and presses his head on his chest, then finally says what, deep inside, he knows Will wants to hear. Just one word.  
“Stay”.


End file.
